The Fight for Saving Hope…

People around have asked me to explain this drawing that I tweeted on May 25th. What animal is this? what is that pink and blue patch? what is this sketch about?…

Tribute to Hope. Female rhino poached in May 2105. Left for dead but then @SavingSurvivors came to her rescue…

Who is she?

First let me introduce you to Hope. She is female rhino around 4 years of age. She was poached, her horn hacked off and left for dead.She was found and rescued by Saving the Survivors who performed a surgery on her May 18th… So far she is surviving that terrible wound and trauma thanks to the unbelievable work of the people around her.

I posted this sketch as a tribute to this beautiful being, and as a way to express my sorrow while wanting to raise awareness about the terrible war that is going on out there against the rhinos and wildlife in general.

Hope’s sketch meaning…

Let’s start with the pink color: I suspect this is F10 sipping through the bandage. F10 is I think a fast acting pre/post- operative surgical ointment. You can actually see it in the video in the interview of Dr Gerhard Steenkamp (below) who performed the surgery on Hope.

I selected this picture of Hope because it was not showing the wound directly, yet it is odd and would likely trigger questions from people unaware of the situation of ‪#‎rhinos‬ and of ‪#‎poaching‬ physical consequences. It did! And it still does few days after I posted this sketch. They are puzzled about what this animal can be: It looks like what might be a rhino however they are not sure. The main feature that makes them recognizable is missing: the horn(s). Then they wonder about what this pink/blue screwed patch is… And so I explain…
As for the people who know the war going on and Hope specifically, they just know…

I wanted to accent further that missing feature and at the same time picture an incomplete/’unfeatured’ being regardless of what was missing. Therefore this is why I chose for this study (for a bigger project) to quickly line Hope with graphite and color the screwed on bandage (in a next version I will emphasize a little more the screws). The addition to the original here is the blotch of blood under Hope’s eye. This is her and our tears about the senselessness and the cruelty of it all.

Today Hope is in a very critical situation. 10 days after her surgery, there has been a setback, They had to dart her and check under the bandage… It’s not pretty. They are doing all they can; and all of us we want her to make it! She is truly a symbol for Hope…

I invite you to follow her story on the Saving the Survivors site, this organization and crew are doing a remarkable job, they need all our support…